February 25, 2015

Early last summer, following the Dyke March debacle, Benjamin Cohen, publisher and CEO of Pink News, retweeted a trans male, Sarah Brown, telling me to suck his balls:

Sarah Brown is a man who identifies as a woman. He has, according to him, had surgery to remove his external male genitalia. Whether his balls are pickled or not, I don’t know, and nor do I want to. The point is that it’s rather rude to tell a woman to suck your balls. (For the avoidance of doubt, I did not write the post to which he linked, nor have I ever written anything for that site. If I had, I’d own up to it. It’s a good site.)

I asked Cohen whether I was to take his retweet as an endorsement:

I didn’t get any further response from Cohen. Now, if I were him, and I had NOT…

February 24, 2015

You’ve got He-Mail!

Why do you spend all your time hating on lesbian trans women rather than gay male assigned at birth misogynists and male identified people who rape those stuck with a hole in the front? Also, I don’t see anyone pillaging from lesbian culture, because your lot, like straight men, are the most aesthetically challenged of all. I may have been unlucky enough to be born without a penis, but don’t you dare assume all trans men were ugly butch dykes who dominated your precious femmes before transitioning. Some trans men were every bit as disgusted as going near a woman sexually as they were with having woman parts, and felt that way before going on t or getting those gross udders obliterated surgically. Heterosexual relationships are an unsexy pit of dominance and submission, and lesbians just imitate this dynamic, albeit with even worse taste in music. And if you hate trans men so much, why do you butches all bind your boobs, have crewcuts, use male nicknames, throttle your femmes with strap ons, don’t let your femmes touch you during sex, and act no different than some rage a holic bubba who beats the missus if she puts too much mayo on your sammich? As a trans man who bangs men up the ass and enjoys a loving, long term, egalitarian relationship with my beautiful feminine gay boyfriend who was born with a penis, I am endlessly curious about you bullies and your masochistic laydee friends.

Before I transitioned and got to join my hot feminine gay boyfriend in the men’s room, I was way more scared of the mean looking bulldaggers and the lipstick licking pregnancy obsessed bimbos in the wombmoon’s room than i ever would be of a trans girl who just wants to do her business and get out of there. Oh, and even more scary? Cow mothers bringing their already predatory male children in there and letting their boy brats peek under the stalls. Of course, all the silly uterus-brains find chulllldren adorable. Gag.

This argument might be valid if all trans women were pre op and wanted to penetrate at all costs, and if lesbians didn’t storm the sex shops to buy painful fake penises in order to feel manly by slamming their submissive, orgasm faking wifey’s innards and giving her urinary tract infections. Until strap on dildos in lesbian sex shops are as nonexistent as gay men buying “jenna Jameson’s strap on pussy ” from gay male sex shops, you silly macho ladies don’t have a leg to stand on. And really, that’s why you hate trans women so much…they don’t have to deal with all the gross parts of womanhood (pms, bleeding, yeast, no orgasms, rape threat, gynecologist, menopause, pregnasty, cellulite, etc) and you do!

“A big stir around our circle recently has been a conversation/debate about what defines gender and who gets to decide,” posted Breitenbush Business Director Peter Moore, whose space has hosted the historic Lesbian event for the last thirty years. And the answer was “Men”. Men get to decide what lesbians do. Heterosexual Men get to decide when and where and how Lesbians get to gather and organize, and the decision these men have reached is: “never”. After this year’s event (contracts were signed prior to the decision to defer to anti-lesbian male rights activists) this historic lesbian event will no longer exist.

More from the Breitenbush missive:

“For this group of women, Breitenbush has for 30 years provided a refuge from their daily experience of a world dominated, passively or aggressively, by men. Their retreat has been a time to do what humans do in the wonders of nature when security and material needs are met—love, laugh, listen, share space, work out issues, play and generally go deeper together. To meet these women’s felt need for safety and sanctuary, people who have had all the privileges that come of being born male have been excluded.

In these women’s youth, lesbianism was classified as a form of mental illness, and gay and lesbian people who “came out” faced physical and emotional violence, marginalization, and loss of financial and family foundations, among other cruelties.

In human history, such women have been considered pariahs in mainstream society, but this generation of women fought back and chose a different path. These women chose Breitenbush as a place to meet and freely associate with other women having similar life experiences.

Today, many in this group face the same challenges that a majority of people in their dotage face. Yet they have one challenge that most aging people do not have. Once seen as pariahs of conventional society, now they are characterized by some as pariahs of the very movement they helped to initiate and build. Why? Because they choose to exclude anyone born male. And now, in the evolution of socio-cultural consciousness pertaining to the human right of gender equality, the leading edge is about self-statement of one’s gender, not birth assignment or any group identity that would exclude an individual regardless of their stated gender identity. The cause of transsexual people is described precisely by this evolution.”

Blood on the lesbian’s hands. The “piece of shit” lesbian. The blood of heterosexual white males. Because she desires the human right to gather with fellow lesbians in sisterhood at the hot springs in an annual weekend, in celebration and sisterhood, as lesbians, the same as they have done for thirty years. (This entire exchange is archived in the comment section below).

Will Radik, the white heterosexual male who persuaded other men that black lesbians “oppress” him, and who lobbied (successfully!) to eliminate the historic lesbian event, is best known previously for his one-man protest against the “All Jane No Dick” comedy tour. Although the tour included male “transwomen”, Radik/Raven protested that the inclusion in the advertising tagline the phrase “No dick” verbally discriminated against the honor of his penis (!). Unlike the male powers-that-be who run the Breitenbush Hot Springs, the female organizers of that event told him to go hush himself.

Previous anti-lesbian campaign by Will “raven Miranda” Radik

Do you believe that Lesbians should have the human right to hold gatherings and events with other Lesbians? Are you a lesbian? Are you an LGBT ally that supports the human rights of lesbians as female human beings to gather together at the hot springs as they see fit? Do you think it’s a bit creepy that heterosexual men are claiming that lesbians oppress them and that historic lesbian events must be eradicated because they hurt the feelings of males who wish to attend? Are Black Lesbians the oppressors of heterosexual white males?

How can a historic thirty-year lesbian event that means SO MUCH to the lives of the women attending be shit-canned by a handful of deranged straight white males concerned with Penis Pride? Holy shit!

Take a moment, hell, take five- and share your perspective with the Breitenbush Hot Springs management:

February 14, 2015

Universities have a particular responsibility to resist this kind of bullying

The Observer, Friday 13 February 2015 19.04 EST

The fate of Kate Smurthwaite’s comedy show, cancelled by Goldsmith’s College in London last month (“What could be more absurd than censorship on campus”, Nick Cohen, Comment) is part of a worrying pattern of intimidation and silencing of individuals whose views are deemed “transphobic” or “whorephobic”. Most of the people so labelled are feminists or pro-feminist men, some have experience in the sex industry, some are transgender.

Last month, there were calls for the Cambridge Union to withdraw a speaking invitation to Germaine Greer; then the Green party came under pressure to repudiate the philosophy lecturer Rupert Read after he questioned the arguments put forward by some trans-activists. The feminist activist and writer Julie Bindel has been “no-platformed” by the National Union of Students for several years.

“No platforming” used to be a tactic used against self-proclaimed fascists and Holocaust-deniers. But today it is being used to prevent the expression of feminist arguments critical of the sex industry and of some demands made by trans activists. The feminists who hold these views have never advocated or engaged in violence against any group of people. Yet it is argued that the mere presence of anyone said to hold those views is a threat to a protected minority group’s safety.

January 29, 2015

GenderTrender received notification yesterday from WordPress.com that Cathy Brennan has filed a legal copyright claim of ownership for the now-archived website RadFem Hub.

Specifically, Ms. Brennan demanded that GenderTrender cease and desist in displaying the above screenshot of the RadFem Hub website header on the grounds that Brennan is the sole and legal owner of said intellectual property.

Cathy Brennan played no part in the creation of the RadFem Hub project, nor participated in the creation of its header or graphics design. She was reportedly brought on board just prior to the demise of the site, under verbal agreement that she would maintain the $50. a year URL costs in perpetuity, an agreement that was apparently reneged on in the space of one year. It is believed that Brennan produced no original content related to the site.

Brennan filed six other simultaneous copyright claims against this website for seemingly random materials published on GenderTrender.

All of her claims have (thankfully) been rejected as without merit by WordPress.com. One might speculate that such claims represent harassment, censorship, and abuse by a wealthy financial services legal partner against a low income working class lesbian feminist blogger, possibly due to ongoing political disagreements.

January 13, 2015

I need advice and solutions on sleeping arrangements with cis and trans women (self.asktransgender)
submitted 11 hours ago by oogiewoogie

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I have a sensitive issue that I need some advice on. I belong to a growing LGBTQ club in my city that goes on out of town trips. I plan the rooms and accommodation for the ladies which involve shared beds, in rooms of 2 or 4.
I know many of the cis lesbians that go on these trips, and while they are supportive of trans rights, many of them are nervous being alone in a room as them, let alone sharing a bed. I am disappointed that transphobia exists even in the LGBT community but it does exist. Yes, I know our members need to be educated, but as you know, that will take time and not happen overnight. So please do not berate me on running a transphobic club.
We had a trans girl join us for the last few trips. When she first posted on our message board that she was trans and looking to share rooms, I got several e-mails from the cis women insisting that they were not comfortable being roomed with any trans women. To avoid any conflict, I have always shared a bed with her and have not had any issues.
However this year we have had another trans girl want to join us. I want to be as inclusive and non-discriminatory as possible, as that is the motto of our club. But my options were: